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The male lead arrives while others plot backstage

MALCOLM McINTOSH, the next chief executive of the CSIRO, is in Australia on a flying visit. McIntosh arrived last Monday and will depart on 30 August after visiting the six state capitals and Canberra. He will leave his job as chief of defence procurement in England in February to take up the CSIRO post.

Where he will be based is still anybody’s guess. A caravan on the Hume Highway perhaps. One of the many issues facing the CSIRO is where its headquarters will be. They were moved from Canberra to Melbourne in 1993. My latest information is that the administration of the CSIRO will be a two or even three-headed beast with commercial activities based in Melbourne – and maybe Sydney – and government liaison based in Canberra. The CEO will divide his time between the two (or three) locations. The future of head office was on the agenda when McIntosh met the CSIRO board for the first time last Tuesday in Melbourne.

McIntosh will meet science minister Peter Cook early next week. Cook has used the visit as one of the reasons for delaying yet again the Government’s statement on innovation. It is now due out in November. Cook’s press release announcing the delay said he wanted to talk to McIntosh about the on-going internal review of the CSIRO’s structure and “other aspects” of the organisation. Seems curious to me that a major statement would be delayed because of the visit by someone with little knowledge of contemporary Australian science who doesn’t get his feet under the desk until next year. The delay is far more to do with a possible election in the New Year I suggest.

McIntosh, I’m told, wants to get a feel for the organisation he will be taking over. He’s unlikely to make any major pronouncements while here. All is calm on the surface with the board working through the internal review and Roy Green firmly in charge as interim CEO. No major structural changes are likely before the election – there are no votes to be won attempting to reorganise government science, only enervating fights.

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But there’s jostling behind the scenes. A model being pushed by industry is gaining attention. This plan would strip the CSIRO board of a lot of its powers. The board would still set general priorities, but the six CSIRO institutes, which are based on overlapping scientific disciplines, would become much more independent and powerful.

The institutes would have their own boards drawn from people with relevant expertise. A criticism of the current structure is that members of one central board cannot fully comprehend the demands of such a diverse organisation. Scientists, as well as industrialists, would be board members. This is essential if industry is not to be perceived as running the show.

Each of the institutes would have an executive officer who would be closer to the day-to-day needs of staff than a central administration. The CEO – McIntosh and his successors – would deal with government, look after the overall budget and administration, and develop alliances between the CSIRO and other organisations.

The model needs refinement and more airing, but it has much to commend it. The CEO job would be a more managable one, while scientists would be closer to decision makers who could understand their needs.

ACCORDING to the August issue of Lab News, the Leader of the Opposition, John Howard, has been saying some curious things about what would happen to science and technology under a Liberal government. Following a meeting in Melbourne, the magazine reports that Howard proposed implementing information platforms and match-making services. John Howard a match-maker! I’d like to see that. Carmen Lawrence and Noel Crichton-Browne perhaps.

I’VE been delving further into the new work Australian Men and Women of Science, Engineering and Technology from Reed Reference Australia. Some interesting facts. Of the 3433 entries, more than a third (1175) were born outside Australia, about a half (1536) are willing to talk to schools, and 2043 will speak to the media. In other words, about 40 percent of our scientists are media shy!